One new reserve for the protection of native wild birds was created during the year, to wit, the Clear Lake Reservation, in California, which was set aside by Executive order of April 11, 1911. A number of these reservations lie within tracts reserved or set aside for purposes other than the protection of birds, such as reclamation withdrawals and naval reserves, but in all such cases the administration of the bird reservation is made subject to the use of the reservation under the primary and more important segregation. REPORT ON THE HOT SPRINGS RESERVATION, HOT SPRINGS, ARK. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, U. S. GOVERNMENT RESERVATION, Hot Springs, Ark., August 29, 1911. SIR: I have the honor to respectfully submit this my annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. GENERAL STATEMENT. This is the second report of the affairs of this reservation during my incumbency as superintendent, and the prophesies made in my report for last year have more than been realized in that the past year has the distinction of being the banner year for this great health resort. To illustrate how widely these waters are known, a daily bathhouse report, selected at random, shows patients here from seven foreign countries. The cures effected here are so startling as to seem almost miraculous. The past year was the most prosperous ever known here, notwithstanding that there is an element in the city which has felt that the success of the resort depended on the existence of certain amusements prohibited by law. In my opinion, people come here for the benefit of the waters and for rest and recreation; and while, as a resort city, many expect it to be free and open, with no restrictions, it has been demonstrated beyond question that it will grow and continue to thrive without questionable features. At the same time, every amusement should be furnished consistent with the good morals and civic decency of a resort so closely allied with the Government. In this connection, the fact that the Government has taken so decided control of local conditions is doubtless one reason for so many people coming here. To afford some idea of how successful the past year has been, I give some comparative figures of arrivals and bathhouse receipts. The arrivals for March, 1910, which up to that time was the best year ever known, were 14,878; the arrivals for March, 1911, were 18,793. Every month of this year shows more visitors than the corresponding month during the previous year, and I estimate there was an increase of visitors here this year over last of over 20,000, the total number of visitors for the year being approximately 130,000. When I first took charge and endeavored to create some sort of a system and change local conditions for the better, I was told my ideas were so revolutionary as to be almost certain of disaster; that the old system was the only one under which existence here was possible. I felt the people were in error and proceeded to suggest such changes as I deemed absolutely necessary for the future of the resort. I was told more than once that such years as 1905 and 1907, when everything was wide open and racing was at its height, could never be expected again. The figures on file in this office utterly disprove this assertion. I give here a few comparisons: The bathhouse receipts for all the bathhouses for March, 1905, were $27,999.70; for March, 1907, they were $30,615.24; and for March, 1911, they were $32,330.34; so that every previous year, including the banner years, is far behind this year; and I feel sanguine that the coming year will exceed this one by a still greater ratio. This is essentially a health resort, and as such it should be most jealously guarded and maintained. It is gratifying in the extreme to compare the total receipts of the bathhouses for the fiscal years 1910 and 1911. The total receipts amounted to $217,916.90 in the fiscal year 1910 and to $253,314.42 in the fiscal year 1911, making a net gain in favor of 1911 of $35,397.52. BATHHOUSES. The schedule of prices for baths at the various bathhouses, as prescribed by the department, is as follows: Table of maximum rates for single baths and course of 21 baths. Business of bathhouses, fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. |